Being a Beatle can do wonders for your bank balance. Especially if you wrote many of their best-loved songs. That’s the message from the latest Sunday Times Rich List of musicians, which names Sir Paul McCartney as the most prosperous musician in the UK and Ireland – as he tends to be every year.

McCartney’s fortune is estimated at £730m, a rise of £20m on last year, and he also benefits from the fact that his wife, Nancy Shevell, has a £150m stake in her family’s trucking business in the US. If you were in the Beatles but happened not to be a songwriter you still don’t have to buy from the economy range in the supermarket: Ringo Starr is joint eighth on the list, with an estimated worth of £180m.

McCartney is followed on the list by Lord Lloyd-Webber (£650m) and U2 (£431m)m though unless the Irish band share everything in common, you’d have to assume that amounts to four separate fortunes.

It’s not all veterans of the pre-digital age in the list. The highest new entry on the list is Calvin Harris, straight in at No 30 with a £70m fortune, making him as rich as Pete Townshend and Mark Knopfler.

In little more than a year, Sam Smith has managed to accrue £12m. Adele, despite not releasing any music for nearly four years, has earned a further £5m, bringing her total to £50m. The four members of One Direction, plus their former comrade Zayn Malik, are believed to be worth £25m each, while Ed Sheeran has seen his bank account swell by £13m to £20m.